“She was everything that a parent would want in a daughter,” Patricia Treadway said. “She was kind. She raised her children right. Her children were her world."

Officials with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they responded to the Old Gum Branch Road bridge at Interstate 485 just after 5:30 p.m. on reports of a suicide. When they arrived they found a woman dead on the interstate.

Authorities said "key information" led officers to a home on Sebastiani Drive, where the woman's children were found badly assaulted and alone.

HEARTBREAKING | Behind crime scene tape you can see a small pink bike with training wheels and a slightly bigger red and black bike parked in the driveway. @wsoctvpic.twitter.com/OwAcRCWl9w

“It's just really sad to see, knowing what happened and everything like that. Seeing bikes out there is kind of a sad display,” neighbor Brian Lagos said. “Why? You know, why is the main thing."

Police said they have located the children's father, and that he is not a person of interest.

Investigators said they are not looking for any suspects, but are working to determine what led Treadway to harm her children.

“Obviously, that’s at the core of this investigation: What would cause someone to be so despondent to want to take their own life, and take the lives of their children? But that’s going to be a key component of the investigation, and we're nowhere near ready to speak on that,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Maj. Mike Smathers said.

The incident marks the second and third homicide cases of 2018 in a community that police said is quiet and low-crime.

All three homicides in Charlotte this year have been considered domestic-related.